Higher taxes are not a generator of economic growth, and poor people don’t do much hiring. Glad we got that desperate secret off our chest. The tax-and-spend redistributionists are horrified that the business cycle has slowed their itinerary for remaking the nation into a government-run paradise. So, what is the Democrats’ chief urge• Why, it’s to raise taxes on the people most likely to invest in greater productivity, better and new products and most likely to hire others to help them achieve these objectives. Are they cwaaaazy? Yes, they are. The proof• President Bush’s $1.35 trillion tax cut over 10 long years is sticking in their craw. They blame it for the recession – an impossibility – and the modest budget deficits of $21 billion this year and $14 billion the next before the budget is predicted to return to the black. “Read my lips: No more surpluses,” chortles Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Well, Mr. Spratt read this: The $1.35 trillion isn’t much. Bracket-creep over a decade will wipe out much of its benefits. And any “stimulus” package to “put money into people’s pockets” takes money from other people’s pockets, Aldona and Gary Robbins declare astutely in National Review Online. Our prescription and theirs: Cut marginal tax rates on income and proceed to reduce taxes on capital gains, the latter being the reward for risk-taking. We do want entrepreneurs and investors willing to take financial risks, don’t we, Mr. Spratt• Unless, of course, you want more people in thrall to the government.

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